Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Lester Brown returned from his European tour last Saturday tired, but exhilarated. His first stop was in Utrecht, The Netherlands, where he was excited to see the concept of Plan B taking root. He met with managers of three major investment companies whose goal was to design a Plan B pension fund. We should know by the end of this month if this fund will become a reality … but it’s looking very positive.

This unique application of Plan B was begun by Marcel de Berg. After reading Plan B 3.0, Marcel was inspired to use his work as an investment manager to promote a Plan B economy. One way of encouraging this, he thought, would be through pension funds, so he convened a conference last year to begin the process.

Lester then traveled to The Hague where he released the Dutch edition of World on the Edge (We kunnen nog kiezen), published by Maurits Groen of MGMC. Maurits has long been concerned about environmental issues, as can be seen in a solar LED lamp that he designed and introduced a few weeks ago at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York. The beauty of this lamp is that it will sell at less than half the price of comparable lamps, thereby making it available especially for disadvantaged people in off-grid areas. Maurits' environmental concerns had also led him to reading some of Lester’s books. When he realized that the most recent ones were not available in Dutch, he contacted us to obtain permission to translate World on the Edge. The press conference he arranged in The Hague netted a number of articles, including a two-page spread in Trouw.

Next stop was Zurich where Lester met with another group of investment managers headed by Sustainable Asset Management. They have realized that environmental trends affect economic trends, and Lester suggested to them that for investments to be really successful it is necessary to also restructure taxes. (SAM was also working with the pension fund initiative in The Netherlands.)

France welcomed Lester as he launched the French edition of World on the Edge, entitled Basculement, in Lyons, Lille, Cergy, and Paris. At each stop, he gave presentations and media interviews. Basculement was co-published by Soufflé Court and Rue de l’echiquier.

Lester also met Marc Zischka of Ecologik Business, who, along with Frédéric Jouffroy helped translate Basculement. Marc and Frederick have been translating EPI’s Updates, Indicators, and Book Bytes into French for the past five years, posting them on a website dedicated to our work. A few years ago, Philippe Vielle and Pierre-Yves Longaretti (see La Belle France blog) asked them if they would also post these on Alternative Planetaire’s website, which they began a few years ago to advance a French version of Plan B.

A monumental thanks to Philippe Vieille who, along with editing the book, put together the successful three day-four city outreach program for Lester. Philippe, who runs his own biotech company, also edited another book, entitled Rebond, which was released at the same time. Rebond is a book providing practical applications of Plan B principles by various companies, members of CJD, in France. The last chapter is an interview between Lester and Michel Meunier, the president of CJD. CJD was a sponsor of both Basculement and Rebond.